


From the Outside In

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: Home and Family [7]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Retcon, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-26 04:11:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3836572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something was wrong.</p><p>(An "Avengers: Age of Ultron" AU - spoilers and serious retconning abound in equal measure)</p><p>***Spoilers for "Avengers: Age of Ultron"***</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have no problem with the people who loved "Avengers: Age of Ultron," but it didn't fit into my universe at _all._ Since I didn't want to ignore it completely, this happened.

_Something was wrong._

_Steve navigated his bike through the snow-covered forest surrounding Baron Strucker's base, trying to figure out what it was. All of their intel had shown them that this was the last base, the one where they'd taken Loki's scepter and were reportedly conducting experiments on people. The mission was important enough that Bruce had actually joined them for this one, and the big green guy was helping them smash their way to the base and the potential prisoners inside. Thor and Tony were handling things from the air, while Natasha drove and Clint shot from the—_

_No. That wasn't what had happened. Clint and_ Bucky _had been shooting from the back of the jeep. Bucky was supposed to be here, fighting beside them. Where—_

_Suddenly, HYDRA soldiers were in front of them, and Steve threw his motorcycle at them while words he never remembered saying tumbled out of his mouth. He tried to remember what he'd been thinking, what he knew was wrong, but all that was left was an uneasiness he could never quite shake._

000

Things had been going so well, too.

They'd invaded Strucker's base without too much trouble, though Bucky could admit his definition of "too much trouble" had gotten pretty skewed by this point. They'd split up as soon as they'd gotten inside, with most of the team dividing to either take out Strucker or hunt for Loki's scepter. Bucky, who had a few patchy memories of the place he didn't like to think about, had gone to the cells in the hopes of finding the prisoners.

When he felt the building's stonework start to shake around him, he was on the comms in an instant. "Thor, you don't know how to create earthquakes now, do you?"

The Asgardian's voice came through a second later. "Not technically, no. Are you in need of assistance?"

"No." So Thor wasn't doing this. "Hulk doing any smashing?"

"Yeah, but not enough to make anyone think it's an earthquake," Clint cut in. "Anything we should be worried about?"

Bucky punched out one HYDRA goon, then stabbed another. "Either HYDRA is hiding an earthquake machine we'll need to blow up, or they're doing something to the prisoners I'll need to kill them for."

"Be careful." That was Steve. "I want to get those people out as badly as you do, but not at the risk of losing you. If there's too many of them, you wait for backup."

"Should I be pumping in some Celine Dion music right now?" Tony cut in. "Give you an appropriate soundtrack to the romantic moment?"

Absently listening to the Tony's teasing – it was oddly comforting, though he'd never admit it – Bucky took out all the guards between him and the cells. The closer he got the more the walls shook, and he kicked open the last door and hurried in to find....

An empty cell.

No, that wasn't quite true. There was a weird blur inside the glass, his enhanced vision picking up the definite flickers of a heat signature. In his ear, he could hear the sudden fury in Steve's voice as he said something about finding Baron Strucker, while Natasha and Tony had apparently located the scepter. Clearly, he'd need to wrap this up.

Flexing his metal fingers, he punched straight through the control panel. When the glass slid open, the blur escaped and headed straight for him before he could blink. By the time he realized what was happening, he'd been slammed back against the wall and a kid in his early 20s had a hand around Bucky's throat. "Who are you?" he hissed, accent thick enough to mark him as a local. "Another one of HYDRA's goons, determined to kill us if you can't control us?"

Bucky locked his metal hand around the kid's wrist, moving it off his throat but not defending himself more dramatically. There was a chance the tech could hold on if the kid ran off again, but it'd be better on both of them if he didn't spook him. "We're here to bust you out," he said. "The Avengers hate HYDRA just as much as you do."

The kid's eyes narrowed.  "Tony Stark's friends." If anything, he sounded even more pissed. "Blow us up in the name of _saving_ us."

Okay, so he clearly needed to take a different approach. "Listen—"

Before he could say anything else, both men were distracted by Natasha's voice on the comm. "I've found her. She's been attached to one of the dead Chitauri warships for some reason, but it shouldn't be too much work to cut her loose."

That seemed to get through to the kid. "You really are here to help us?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Bucky said, exasperated. "And we can both help everyone else if we just—"

There was a sudden sound of pain from Natasha, Baron Strucker shouting something, and Steve calling everyone to Natasha's side. Then everything was drowned out in a rush of ominous crackling.

The kid's eyes went wide with fear. "Wanda," he whispered.

The world disappeared in a blur of speed.


	2. Chapter 2

_Natasha felt herself lean over the bar, flirting with Bruce. The words felt strange in her mouth, caught somewhere between the awkwardly hesitant friendship they'd developed and the seduction techniques she'd used on her former marks. There was something wrong – there should be another woman next to Bruce, a flash of dark hair – but even as she tried to chase the thought the image of Clint's wife and children unfolded in her mind's eye._

_They were so happy together, and all so welcoming of the lost little assassin Clint had brought into their lives. Only a monster would begrudge that one last step of distance that remained, the fact that someone as kind and tender as Clint had gone to a woman who was equally gentle. Someone who deserved him._

_Love wasn't only for children. It simply wasn't meant for her._

000

Bucky's reality slammed back a second later as the kid skidded to a halt, dropping them both in a walkway overlooking a much larger room. Making a mental note that hanging on to a super speedster was _definitely_ going on the list of tricks never to do again, Bucky dropped to his knees and tried very hard not to puke. Then he realized that the kid had frozen, staring at something, and suddenly there were more important things to worry about.

In the room below them, the rest of the team, Baron Strucker and whatever goons had still been standing were surrounded by pulsating wisps of light. Everyone was frozen, staring wide-eyed at something far away, including a doubled-over Natasha and the girl she’d probably been trying to rescue.

Bruce was Bruce again, which meant that he'd either thought everything was okay or whatever happened had forcibly changed him back. Tony was only wearing one of his Iron Man gauntlets, Loki's staff still in his hand. The girl had been tethered to the dead Chitauri ship, just like Nat had said, and the fact that it was pulsating red as well was probably really, really bad. To top it all off, the static still filling his earpiece meant that even whatever was going on was probably also blocking out JARVIS.

The kid was staring at the girl, the horror on his face making it clear how much she meant to him. “No, no, no,” he muttered to himself, or possibly the girl. “This is all my fault. If I had only gotten us away in time—”

Bucky caught his arm. “What’s happening?”

The kid squeezed his eyes shut. “We volunteered, because they said they would protect our country from Tony Stark and his Avengers. But we found out the truth, that they were no better than the Nazi monsters who chased our great-grandparents to this country, and we tried to run.” He made a pained sound. “I can run faster than sound, but not fast enough to save the only family I have left.”

Bucky’s grip gentled, his heart going out to the kid. “It was the two of you against a whole army. Speaking as a fellow prisoner of these bastards, sometimes there’s nothing you can do.”

The younger man’s eyes flew open as he turned to Bucky. After a split second, his eyes dropped to Bucky’s arm and understanding filled his eyes. “They experimented on you as well.”

Bucky nodded, hoping he was projecting the steady support so many people had given him. "And now I'm here to help get you and your sister out."

The kid's jaw tightened as he turned back to his sister. "We can't. Normally she touches people's minds with her telekinesis for only a moment to give them visions, but that _thing_ means that her power is still pumping through everyone. If we touch it, we will be dragged in as well."

Bucky went cold. "Visions?"

The kid – damn it, he really needed to ask his name at some point – waved a hand near his head. "She said that she can use her powers to make the parts of their brains see pictures they think are reality. I did not understand all of it." Something lost flickered through his eyes for a second, quickly swallowed up by anger. "I do not know what this will do to her or your friends."

Shit. Bucky surveyed the area, trying to come up with some kind of plan. He wasn't going to touch the scepter, even if he could figure out a way to get to it – he didn't understand it well enough to take the risk of potentially making everything a thousand times worse. He didn't have Bruce next to him to explain the biology of the girl's powers, and he couldn't even get close enough to anyone to try the good old cognitive recalibration trick without getting sucked in to whatever was happening. He had vague memories of the rest of the team talking about the Chitauri – there was something about the aliens being mentally linked, but no one had ever given any—

The rest of the thought cut off when Strucker made a choked noise and collapsed to the ground in a heap. Bucky had seen enough bodies fall in his life that he didn't even question whether or not the man was dead. He turned to the kid. "Was that your sister?"

He looked scared and furious. "I don't know! They are new powers, and no one cared if we understood them! She has never killed anyone before, but she has never used her powers like this, either!"

Bucky felt his own spike of fear – he'd take on anything for Steve, for the rest of the assholes who'd become his family, but there was nothing here he could fight – but shoved it out of the way. He reached for the part of himself that remembered how to be the Winter Soldier, the part that let him take a step back and clinically watch Natasha, Clint and Tony for signs that they were being similarly affected. If it was a side effect of the telekensis, the unaugmented humans would be the first to feel it.

When it was clear there was no difference, he didn't try to stop the relief. "Okay, it's probably not burnout from your sisters powers, which I'm going to tell myself means that we've got at least a little more time." If something _in_ the hallucination killed him – the old dying in the dream trick – then he'd have to trust that Steve and everyone else could keep themselves alive until he figured this out.

Of course, he still needed to manage that part. He assumed the Chitauri ship was being used as some kind of antennae or satellite dish, but if the stories were right it had taken rockets or the Hulk to bring one of those things down. There _might_ be rockets here somewhere, but everyone was too close to the potential rubble. So he'd have to focus on something smaller....

Bucky narrowed his eyes at the metal cables hooked into Wanda, stomach twisting with the echo of his own blurred memories. Well, at least he'd get her the hell out of there.

He turned back to the kid. "What's your name?"

"Pietro." The kid shifted on the balls of his feet, clearly itching to do something. "Pietro Maximoff."

"Okay, Pietro, my name is Bucky Barnes, and hopefully we can have a nice long round of introductions after this is all over. Right now, though, I'm going to need you to get me a gun, preferably something energy based." He analyzed the distance, doing the calculations in his head. Somehow, that part of him had never faded. "That way we don't have to worry about whether the bullets will go through the metal."

Pietro narrowed his eyes, following Bucky's gaze. "The target is too small. There was no way you will make it from here."

Bucky held out a hand for the gun. "You have your talents, I have mine."

An instant later, Pietro disappeared in a blur only to reappear again just as fast. There was also a gun in Bucky's hand now – an energy weapon, just like he asked for – and he tested the heft and fired a test shot at the end of the corridor. Satisfied, he pointed the gun down and sighted the cables. Three quick shots, closer to the ship than Wanda so that neither she nor Nat got any blowback. Bucky let out a breath.

Then he fired.


	3. Chapter 3

_Clint stared at the woman and children who’d congregated around him, who were apparently living at the farm he’d only ever brought Natasha to. His brain was telling him they were his family, his mouth saying the right things as his arms moved to hug them all, but none of it made any sense. The woman smiled up at him, but it felt more like a dream than the enormous killer robot had._

_He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew his team was in trouble. Tash kept getting this haunted look, when she thought no one could see – watching her smile at his “wife” was surreal – and everyone else was almost as off. Even if you ignored the insane robot, something was clearly wrong._

_Clint had no idea what was going on, but he’d do everything he could to keep them safe. He’d try to figure out what the hell was going on later._

 000

All three shots hit the cables, neatly shearing each of them in two. There was a flair of electrical-looking energy when they split, but when they did the red light faded and disappeared almost immediately.

Bucky let out a breath. “Okay, now—” He didn’t bother finishing the sentence when he saw the blur streak across the floor, Pietro reappearing next to his sister’s side. The kid reached for her, then flinched back, and Bucky realized he could still see faint flickers of red skittering over her. Steve and the rest of the team weren’t moving over, eyes still blank and staring off into the distance.

Pietro’s gaze shot back up to him. “There’s still something wrong with her!”

“There’s also still something wrong with my team," Bucky snapped, not bothering to hide his worry. "Why haven’t they woken up?”

Pietro waved a dismissive hand. “Their brains still think they are in the vision. They will wake up.” He gestured to his sister, still looking terrified. “This is more serious!”

Bucky scrubbed his hand across his face. He really needed Bruce or Tony for this. “Okay, I’m going to wake up the rest of my team and we’ll figure out what to do next.”

“Sargent?” JARVIS’s voice was suddenly in his ear. “I have been trying to contact the rest of the team. I can still detect their life signs, but no one is responding. I presume you are attempting to address the problem.”

“JARVIS, buddy.” It was a relief to have some backup. “We had a little mind whammy situation, and I could really use some help waking people up. Any chance you could walk Tony’s suit in here and punch him in the face for me?”

“As fascinating as that thought might be, the suit is equipped with adrenaline as part of the basic first-aid technology Mr. Stark recently added.”

The word “first-aid” sparked his memory, making him turn to Nat. “Okay, then, scratch my earlier request. Nat got hit before all this went down. Can you come check her out?”

“Right away, Sargent. Tracing your location now.”

Which meant it was his job to wake people up. He jumped down into the main room, landing more lightly than he used to – he and Steve were working on that – and headed over to the team. He’d wake Steve up first so he’d have someone to help with the punching….

The thought scattered at the sudden sound of a very familiar rumble. Bucky whirled around to see Bruce on the ground, partway through the change with eyes that were still blank and unseeing.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Changing course, Bucky skidded over. Swinging out with his metal arm, he gave Bruce a solid hit to the side of the face.  You probably needed something more serious to cognitively recalibrate the Hulk – a steel beam, maybe – but right now he was only half Hulk and he didn’t want to hurt Bruce. Besides, grabbing something like that would take time Bucky didn’t have.

Bruce reeled as the rest of the transformation to Hulk snapped into place, and for a split second Bucky wondered if he’d just made a terrible mistake. But no, the Hulk was blinking, shaking his head like he was trying to clear it, and when he looked at Bucky there was confusion but also thankfully some real focus.

“Hey, big guy. Sorry about that.” Bucky made sure the pitch of his voice was soothing, the same one he remembered using when Steve got sick back in the old days. Betty had theorized that the Hulk’s processing was similar to a dramatically over stimulated child, and interacting with him that way had worked pretty well for everyone so far. “But you were kind of in a bad place there, and I needed to get you out of it.”

Hulk nodded slowly, looking around the room. When he saw that no one else was moving, he turned back to Bucky with a furrowed brow. “Friends still in bad place?” he rumbled.

Bucky nodded. “Yeah. I was hoping we could get Bruce back to help us out with that.”

Hulk nodded back, then closed his eyes and concentrated. Slowly, he turned back into Bruce, who blinked up at Bucky with a shell-shocked expression. “I was… the Hulk was in Wakanda, tearing Freedomtown apart. I’d…” He let the rest of the sentence trail off sat back on his heels, the pants he and Tony had designed shrinking around him as looked dazedly around the room. Then he shook his head, hard, scrubbing his hands across his face. “What happened?”

“You all got whammied by one of Strucker’s prisoners. I don’t know if something he tried went wrong, or it was a desperate last-ditch effort on her part to get at Strucker, but she’s in a bad way right now.” Bucky straightened, gesturing toward Pietro and Wanda. “Any chance you could take a look, see if there’s something we can do to help her?”

Bruce looked over at the two, not moving for a moment, then nodded. Bucky helped him to his feet just as the rest of Tony’s suit walked into the room. “I apologize for the delay,” said JARVIS. “But some of the guards had regained consciousness and were attempting to hinder me.”

“Well, then they learned a valuable life lesson, didn’t they?” Bucky gestured towards Natasha, who was still curled protectively around herself next to the siblings. “I’m not sure what Nat’s injury is, but it’s probably on her torso. She’s also been whammied, so if you can use that adrenaline to pull her out of it that would be great.”

“Consider it done.” JARVIS focused on Bruce and the siblings. “There is another young woman who seems to need assistance as well.”

“Yeah. The bastards here experimented on her, which means that more detailed notes about her powers are probably in the mainframe. If you could work with Bruce….”

“Of course. As soon as I see to Miss Romanoff.” JARVIS headed over to assist, and Bucky turned back to the rest of the team. No one seemed to be in any worse shape than the others, which meant he should probably wake up Tony first so he could help with the brain trust in the corner.

But damn it, he wanted to talk to Steve.

He went over to his fiancée, who’d clearly been stopped in the middle of a throw. His body had relaxed, once the telekinesis had ended – both the shield and Thor’s hammer were on the ground, dropped from nerveless fingers – but his shoulder was still cocked back a little. His eyes were vacant and unseeing, making something twist in Bucky’s stomach.

Okay, he could do this. He’d try it with his regular hand first, and only go to the metal if that didn’t work. “Sorry, babe,” he murmured, then reared back and socked Steve in the jaw.

Steve staggered back, Bucky lunging forward to grab him. He waited as Steve shook his head, the focus returning to his eyes. “Thanks, Buck.” He rubbed his jaw, smiling a little. “Cognitive recalibration?”

“Pretty much.” Bucky’s own lips curved upward for just a moment. “One of HYDRA’s prisoners caught you all in a whammy, but I don’t think she meant to. She grabbed Strucker, too, and he didn’t survive it.”

Steve thought about it. “Strucker died in … whatever we were in. Ultron killed him.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow. “Ultron?”

Steve shook his head. “Long story. I’ll tell you later.” He touched the side of Bucky’s face for a moment, then looked at everyone else still frozen. “What do you need me to do?”

“Honestly?” Bucky smirked a little as he let go of Steve, stepping back. “I need you to punch Thor in the face for me.”

Steve huffed out a laugh. “Sure. Give me the easy jobs.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, the spoilers for the movie are higher from this point on than in the previous chapters, and one of my readers has requested a specific warning. 
> 
> ***Spoilers for "Avengers: Age of Ultron"***

_Something was wrong, but Tony had more important things to worry about._

_Ultron had never been more than notes and theories, sketches and idle speculations fueled by a massive, formless desire to keep the people he cared for safe, and watching it all coalesce into a monster was horrifying and fascinating in equal measure. He was nearly certain none of it was actually happening – he hadn’t had the desire to call Pepper even once, not even after it looked like the thing he’d made had killed JARVIS – and so he could focus on chasing every extrapolation to its most logical conclusion without drowning in guilt._

_Then he could fix it, reworking all of his theories and ideas into the form they clearly should have been from the beginning. The Vision was the project as it should have been, massive power resting in the hands of someone he trusted rather than an insane AI who’d clearly imprinted too much on him._

_He wasn’t comfortable leaving the world in his hands. In JARVIS’s, however, it would be just fine._

000

Bucky went for Clint next, waking him up with a single quick punch. The other man didn't even reel or look disoriented, coming to with nothing more than a quick headshake and Nat's name on his lips. He scanned the room until he found her, hurrying over without acknowledging that anyone else was even there.

Bucky completely understood. If Steve had been the one injured, he knew exactly where his priorities would be.

Tony was last, and he snapped back almost as fast as Clint had. For a second there was a weirdly annoyed look on his face, like he got sometimes when he got interrupted in the middle of a project, then he blinked and it was replaced with a wryly amused look. "You enjoyed that a little too much, didn't you?"

"I've punched like five people in the last 20 minutes, Tony. I'm actually kind of bored with it." Bucky held out a hand, helping Tony to his feet as Steve and Thor walked over. "Do you need me to give you the rundown?"

Tony shook his head. "The girl clearly has hallucinogenic capabilities of some kind, Strucker hooked her up to the Chitauri ship to amp her power and take away her control, and it exploded in everyone's faces." He winced. "Like Ultron would have, apparently. JARVIS, make a mental note to purge all Ultron notes from the system."

Steve's eyes narrowed as he approached. "You were actually _building_ Ultron? Damn it, Tony, did it escape your attention that HYDRA tried that _exact_ same trick less than a year ago?"

"I wasn't building it. I hadn't even seriously started designing the damn thing yet. It was notes, theories I jotted down when I was bored." Tony rubbed his ungauntleted hand along the back of his neck. "And okay, maybe I'm a little too trusting when it comes to AI, but you've met JARVIS."

"Artificial intelligence is the same as any other form of intelligence, Stark," Thor said solemnly, expression darkening. "Two beings from the same parent can have very different values and views on the world."

"As we just saw." He gestured off into the distance, looking tired, then focused on Steve and Thor. "But you can't tell me you don't fantasize about retirement, sometimes. Finding some way to keep the people you love safe without having to always stand between you and the cosmic whatever-the-hell-it-is."

Something Tony said clearly made Thor realize something, and he took Loki's scepter out of Tony's hand to examine it more closely. Steve, on the other hand, looked sympathetic. "Yeah, I understand. But we just saw how badly that idea turns out."

"Yeah, because I gave the power to an unknown quantity instead of JARVIS." Tony shook his head. "You know, barring the whole traumatic world-ending-scenarios nonsense, I'd almost want to ask the kid to put me under again the next time I have a big project. It's like the ultimate testing scenario, without the potential side effect of death and-or large scale genocide."

Bucky raised an eyebrow. "As someone who had to watch it all from the outside, I'd vote no. Strucker ended up dead, and I wouldn't trust either you or Steve to wander around in your heads on your own."

Steve shot Bucky an amused, faintly long-suffering look. "Don't worry – I've got no interest in taking a return trip. It felt ... wrong."

"Exactly." Tony pointed at Steve, like a teacher whose pupil had finally asked the question he'd been waiting for. “Our minds knew that the scenario we were in wasn’t real, and kept trying to signal us by making weird stuff happen. That whole mess with Romanoff was probably the most obvious. There may be a world out there somewhere where she’s knocking boots with Bruce, but I’m _damn_ sure there isn’t one where they would consider bailing on us in the middle of a shit storm like that. And the whole damsel-in-distress thing where our terrifying ninja goddess couldn’t get out of a measly little cell on her own?” He made a disgusted face. “I’m pretty sure someone’s brain pulled that out of a TV movie of the week somewhere. The only _more_ obvious thing our minds could have done to tell us what was happening wasn’t real was turn it all into a musical.”

Bucky looked over at Natasha, who still had that distant look in her eye even though her hand was aware enough of Clint to wrap around his wrist. He was clearly talking to her, voice too low to make any of it out, and Bucky realized that what Tony had thought of as ridiculous nonsense had probably been hell for her.

If she needed it, he’d be there to talk just like Clint would be. And if she needed to _not_ talk, possibly while beating someone bloody, he’d be there too.

He turned back to the rest of the group when Thor spoke. “If our minds were trying to communicate with us in the middle of the vision, then we may have bigger problems.” He pulled the blue jewel out of Loki’s scepter, crushing it in his hand. Chunks crumbled to the ground, and when he opened his hand again there was a smaller yellow stone.

If anything, Thor looked even less happy than before. “The Mind Gem.” His jaw tightened. “One more Infinity Stone, in a place it should not be. They are finding one another.”

Steve narrowed his eyes at the rock, no doubt remembering the hell the Cosmic Cube had put them all through. “Are all of them as destructive as that and the Cosmic Cube?”

“No.” Thor’s expression darkened. “Some are far worse.”

Tony opened his mouth to say something, only to be interrupted when the gauntlet removed itself from Tony’s hand and flew off to rejoin the rest of the suit JARVIS was using. “Well, that’s a cue if I’ve ever seen one,” he said instead, gesturing toward the rest of the group. “Shall we?”


	5. Chapter 5

_Wanda had always left a flicker of her power with her brother, a way to keep track of him no matter how fast he ran. A way to keep him close to her, no matter how far apart they were._

_So when his heart stopped beating, the stillness of it ripped through her own chest like shrapnel. She dropped to her knees, the strength that had kept her upright for so long gone along with the breath in Pietro's lungs. Without him, the idea of continuing to exist seemed unbearable._

_She would make Ultron suffer, the same way she suffered. If robots could bleed, she would find a way to do it._

_Then she would join her brother._

000

Wanda was still laying on the table as they approached, the metal cuffs that had kept her imprisoned broken through. She clearly wasn't out of danger, though, the red light still flickering over her body a sign that her powers were still live. Bruce and JARVIS were talking in a low voice, consulting readings JARVIS was showing them, while Pietro paced back and forth anxiously on the other side of the table. Bucky moved toward him, laying a hand on his shoulder, and while the kid stiffened he didn't flinch away. He just turned to look at Bucky for a moment, anguish in his eyes, and resumed pacing the moment Bucky let him go.

Once he and JARVIS were done with their discussion, Bruce looked up at them. "We took all the inputs out of her, and JARVIS says there's no outside drugs in her system. She's not responsive to visual or auditory stimulus, and the energy she's expending with her telekinesis burned right through the adrenaline JARVIS injected." He sat back, clearly frustrated at his helplessness. "According to Pietro here, JARVIS is the only one who can touch her without running the risk of being dragged back into the hallucination." He winced even as he spoke, no doubt remembering the images he'd seen of Hulk in Wakanda.

"If we stop her powers, is there a chance she'll wake up on her own?" Steve asked. "In the hallucination, Clint hit her in the forehead with an electrical arrow. Gave her a pretty bad headache, but she was fine afterward."

Pietro stopped, glaring at Steve. "Don't even think about it, America," he snapped, a look in his eyes like he was considering doing something stupid. Bucky put his hand back on Pietro's shoulder, grip a little firmer this time.

Steve held up his hands in a "don't shoot" gesture. "We don't want to hurt her, Pietro. But you know as well as we do that this can't be good for her."

Pietro flinched, looking back down at his sister with anguish in his eyes. "I know." All the life had gone out of his voice. "Maybe I should let the hallucination take me. Even if we're lost, we will be lost together."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Bruce held up a hand.

"Agreed," JARVIS said. "Putting yourself at risk simply compounds the problem, Mr. Maximoff. Unfortunately, using an electrical charge runs a risk as well. I am unaware what the situation was like in your shared hallucination, but her powers are generating a great deal of energy. Adding to that may shock her into awareness, but it could just as easily burn her out."

"Shocking her won't help." That was Natasha, who had been sitting with her back to the table. Everyone turned as she stood up, holding onto Clint for balance as unobtrusively as possible. All her attention, though, was on Pietro. "He has to touch her."

Tony opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. Steve was just wearing his serious face. "What do you know that we don't?"

Natasha looked down at Wanda. "Wanda thinks her brother's dead. She can't see or hear any of us, but she can essentially use her power to read people's minds. She's attuned to him anyway – even if it's only a second, she'll feel him." She looked up at the rest of them, her grip on Clint tightening. "She'll have a reason to live again."

Everyone considered this for a moment, then Steve nodded. "If you're willing, Pietro."

Before he'd even finished the sentence, Pietro had reached out and pressed his fingers against the back of Wanda's hand. The light flared up his arm almost instantly, then disappeared along with the light that had been covering her. An instant later, her eyes flew open. "Pietro?"

He pulled her into his arms with a choked sound, and for a moment no one said anything while the siblings sobbed into each other's shoulders. When they finally broke apart, still half holding onto each other, she turned to the rest of them. "I'm sorry I dragged you all into that."

Natasha's voice was quiet. "You were trying to survive. We know what that's like."

"Besides, it turns out no one's actually dead," Clint added. "Not even any real property damage, except for the redecoration we've done on this place. That's practically a day in the park for us."

"You may have even alerted us to a far greater threat," Thor added, hand tightening on the Mind Gem. "In a way, we owe you our gratitude."

"An excellent way to show that gratitude would be medical treatment," JARVIS cut in. "She's not in danger, but Miss Maximoff's biological systems have suffered a significant strain. In addition, both siblings are malnourished and significantly dehydrated. I could begin to address these concerns far more effectively once we return to the quinjet."

"So I'll take everyone out to dinner on the way home – my treat." Tony got a thoughtful look on his face, as if he were actually trying to come up with restaurants they could stop by on their cross-continental flight home. "JARVIS? If you could give me a lift back to the quinjet?"

"One moment, sir." JARVIS lightly touched one of his metal hands to Wanda's arm. "It is your choice to come with us or not, Miss Maximoff. But I would welcome the opportunity to continue your medical treatment."

Wanda's expression turned wondering. "You were in my vision. Your face is different, but your voice is the same." Her fingers lifted, the faintest flickers of power. "Your thoughts are ... strange, but not the same as his were."

"I'm afraid I did not participate in the hallucination, Miss Maximoff." For a second, Bucky could have sworn there was something oddly regretful in Jarvis's voice. "But if you have questions I will try to answer them."

"My questions, unfortunately, cannot be answered here." Thor took a step back. "I need to speak to Jane about the presence of yet another Infinity Stone and the possible implications. Will you have any further need of me?"

Steve shook his head. "We're good. Let us know what you and Jane find."

Thor nodded. "Of course." He turned, lifting his hand to call the hammer to him, only to freeze when he realized that it was already nearly within his reach.

Everyone else's eyes went wide as well. They'd had a "who could lift Thor's hammer" drinking session the week before, with Bucky and Natasha both refusing to play. No one had managed it, even though Tony had tried using his suit in pretty much every combination there was. He'd even tried taking off with it, and succeeded only in leaving burn marks in Pepper's floor.

JARVIS, however, was holding the hammer out to Thor like he was handing him back his car keys. "You dropped this, sir."

Suddenly, Tony fist-pumped the air. "I knew it!"

Carefully, Thor took the hammer back from JARVIS, then turned to Tony. "I need Jane to examine the stone first, and there is some information that cannot be shared. But if we locate the information Ultron used to create the Vision, I will send it to you." He looked down at the stone. "And possibly more. There are few truly safe homes for something as powerful as this."

Tony looked like he'd been hit in the head with a board. "I ... uh, yeah. Your own timetable, man."

As Thor left, Clint turned to the siblings. "Come on. You can't let Stark pick the restaurant, but other than that it's not a bad gig."

Pietro glanced over at Bucky, who gave him a small smile. "It doesn't have to be forever, if you don't want it to be. But you could both use somewhere safe right now."

The siblings looked at each other, then nodded. Wanda turned back to the rest of the team. "Yes. We will go with you."


	6. Epilogue 1: Natasha

Clint had been hesitant to leave Natasha's side at all, but she pushed him into taking control of the Quinjet for the flight home. No one sat in the passenger's seat, a silent acknowledgement that it was waiting for her when she was ready.

At the moment, though, it was easier to focus on everyone else. JARVIS was fussing over Wanda and Pietro in the back, giving them both vitamins and electrolytes and checking to make sure there were no unexpected side effects of their powers. He was also giving them both a sales pitch for the tower – and the assistance he could offer – better than she'd ever heard even Tony manage. If they left again, it was entirely possible that the AI's heart would be broken.

Thor had already flown off, but the rest of the team was in the front. Tony had one of his pads out, fingers flying and muttering to himself occasionally as he sketched out what he remembered of Vision's specs. Bruce was sitting on the ground, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a phone pressed against his ear. The look on his face made it clear he was talking to Betty, his rock in the storm.

Steve and Bucky were next to each other, unsurprisingly, shoulders pressed together as they leaned against the bulkhead talking in low voices. She was good enough at reading lips that she could have made out what they were saying, but she had no interest in invading either of their privacy like that. At first, she'd thought that Steve had made it through Wanda's hallucination nearly unscathed, but watching him now she'd realized how much she'd missed. The man in the hallucination had been Steve as she'd first met him, closed-off, more than a little angry, and living only for the job. Lost, in a way she'd been all too familiar with.

This Steve, the one who had Bucky standing next to him, was a different man. The light was back in his eyes.

She understood that, too. At least some of their fears, it seemed, were surprisingly similar.

As if he'd caught her watching him, Steve chose that moment to meet her eyes. He gave her a small smile, one that suggested he knew exactly what she was thinking, and nudged his head slightly towards the cockpit. Bucky, catching the silent conversation, did the same.

She raised an eyebrow at them both, pretending she had no idea what they were talking about. They both shot her back matching looks of amused disbelief.

Natasha turned back to the cockpit, expression sobering as the ache in her chest sharpened. Parts of the hallucination had been exactly like Tony had said, her brain creating blatantly incorrect scenarios in an obvious attempt to signal that something was wrong. There were any number of reasons she could call herself a monster, but the fact that she couldn't have children wasn't one of them.

It hurt now, though, in a way it hadn't before she and Clint had crossed the final line standing between them. The idea of someone like her becoming a mother had always seemed too impossible to contemplate, but now the dreams that didn't have blood in them were starting to fill with little children who had red hair and Clint's smile.

Shaking her head, she walked over, skimming a hand over Clint's shoulder as she took the seat that had been waiting for her. Clint glanced over at her as she sat down, expression as warm and welcoming as his hugs always were. "Any chance you've got some new knock-knock jokes? I understand why everyone's quiet, but it makes for kind of a dull flight."

Natasha felt her lips curve upward. There were very few people who she cared about enough to tell them terrible jokes, and even fewer people who cared about _her_ enough to actually ask to hear them. "No knock-knock jokes, but I did hear another one. What do you call a woodpecker with no beak?"

Clint's own lips quirked. "Dead?"

"No. A headbanger."

Clint groaned, just like he was supposed to, and her throat tightened as a rush of love hit her. No matter what he'd done for SHIELD, no matter how much he'd been hurt, manipulated and abused, he was still the kindest, most generous man she'd ever known. He deserved the world, and all she had to give him was herself. "I'm sorry."

Clint's expression turned serious. "Unless you're apologizing for your terrible sense of humor, you've got nothing to be sorry for."

She set her chin, stubborn. The only lie they told each other these days was "I'm fine," but it was the other person's job to call them on it. "I gave you a taste of something you don't really have, and then I made you wake up again. That was cruel by anyone's standards, even though it wasn't by intention."

His eyes widened in surprise, looking over at her as if checking to see if she was serious. "Tash." Then he let out a breath. "You really think that was what I wanted?"

Natasha opened her mouth, hoping she could pull up some flippant answer, then closed it again and swallowed. "You deserve a family like that."

Clint didn't say anything for a moment, eyes fixed on the sky in front of them. "Is this you figuring out how to tell me goodbye?" he asked finally, voice low and hurting. "Waving hypothetical future children in front of me as a consolation prize because I can't have you anymore?"

Her own eyes widened at how badly he'd misinterpreted what she said, chest clenching at the pain she could hear in his voice. "I'm not going anywhere," she whispered, leaning over to press a kiss against his shoulder. "But I should be the one who's the consolation prize."

He turned on autopilot long enough to pull her into a hug. "I'm yours," he murmured against her hair. "No one else's. I don't _want_ to be anyone else's. And if it's just the two of us for the rest of our lives, I will still be the luckiest bastard who ever lived."

Natasha closed her suddenly wet eyes, holding on as hard as she could. "You're insane."

Clint chuckled, not letting go. "Which is why we work so well together."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking about exploring them further in the last two chapters of my fic ["The Space Between,"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2577692/chapters/5736167%22) but I haven't written them yet.


	7. Epilogue 2: Steve

Steve watched Nat head up to the front of the Quinjet, hurting for her. At first he’d thought the Red Room had been what had put that look on her face – any discussion of her past always did, no matter how brief – but now he wondered if Clint’s family had dug into her, too. No matter whose mind the images had come from, seeing it be built around someone who wasn’t her had to have been hard.

Back in the old days, he’d expected to be “Uncle Steve” when Bucky had finally gotten married and had kids – if he’d lived that long, of course. He hadn’t ever imagined a family of his own – in the pre-serum days, he’d had enough trouble getting a girl to even look at him twice – and he’d accepted always hanging on the fringes if he could keep Bucky in his life.

Still, he’d dreaded it, even though he’d told himself Bucky was only a friend. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Nat.

“What really happened in there?” Bucky asked quietly, making Steve turn back to look at him. He looked serious, eyebrows cocked in that way that always meant he knew every single place Steve didn’t want to admit he was hurting. “You told me all about the killer robot and the flying chunk of city that nearly killed everyone, but that wasn’t nearly enough to account for Nat’s face or that look in your eyes.”

Steve sighed, scrubbing a hand across his face. The actual, physical fight had been less intense than other attacks they’d made on various HYDRA bases, but somehow he still felt as exhausted as he used to when he was a kid. “Apparently, our brains contributed to the hallucination’s whole convoluted plot. Some of it was pulled straight from our subconscious, apparently.”

“Ah.” There was a world of understanding in that single word. “Now I’m even more glad I didn’t get caught in it with the rest of you.”

Steve went cold at the thought of Bucky trapped in a world even partially made from the shadows in his head. “So am I.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t hate the fact that the rest of you had to go through that, though.” Bucky’s voice had gone quiet, his fingers threading through Steve’s. “Did they drop you in the ice again? Take a couple more decades away from you?”

Steve shook his head, tightening his grip on Bucky’s hand. “No.” He looked over at the man he loved, a part of him still appalled at himself for forgetting for even a second that Bucky was supposed to be there. It was one of the basic facts of his life, more essential to who he was than his DNA or even the serum. “They took you.”

Bucky winced. “The Winter Soldier again, or something else?”

“No, you were just … not there. Like that part of my life had just disappeared.” He made a face, remembering how … flat he’d felt. It hadn’t been like it was when he’d thought Bucky was dead, not entirely – then it had been a hole inside him, an aching wound too big to ever really heal right. In the hallucination, it hadn’t really felt like those parts of him were there to begin with.

But both times, all that had really been left was Captain America, the shell of a hero with a worthless little kid rattling around inside trying to keep everything moving. He’d devoted all his energy into being an ideal instead of being a real person, because the ideal was all he really had. In a world without Bucky, Steve Rogers pretty much disappeared, too.

Wow. Maybe Sam was right about him needing therapy.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to translate whatever’s going on in your head right now,” Bucky said, his voice less careful than it had been. “Because that is the strangest set of expressions I’ve ever seen you make, and I was there the first time Thor let you try some of the Asgardian home brew.”

Steve huffed out a laugh, turning back to look at Bucky. "I was just trying to figure out whether I don't know how to be Steve Rogers without you, or if it's just too hard for me to want to try."

Bucky's brow lowered. "You _are_ Steve Rogers, massive art nerd and world-class troublemaker with no sense of self-preservation. Cap's just the surprisingly sexy costume you wear when you go out and punch bad guys."

Steve squeezed his hand again. "I forget that, when you're not here."

Bucky just watched him for a moment, eyes narrowed slightly like he was thinking about warning Steve not to do anything stupid while he wasn't looking. "Try harder to remember," he said finally, the "punk" unspoken but definitely implied.

Steve smiled, stroking his thumb lightly along the skin of Bucky's hand.  Captain America may belong out in the field, helping people, but Steve Rogers’ home had always been wherever Bucky Barnes was. "Don't go anywhere and I will," he said softly.

Bucky made an exasperated noise, squeezing Steve's hand again. "I think it's been pretty established by this point that you're stuck with me for life."

Steve’s smile widened as he gave him a quick kiss. "Best news I've heard all century." 

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my weekly posts and original short fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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